The rapid growth of large-scale, high-spatial resolution neuroimaging technology has advanced the understanding of the neural underpinnings of various complex cognitive and social processes. For instance, work in cognitive and social neuroscience has identified the neural correlates of information processing operations, ranging from basic perceptual processing (e.g., checkerboard) to more complex cognitive (e.g., object or face recognition, decision making, action understanding, embodied cognition) and social processing (e.g., pair bonding, love, empathy, cooperation).
A key theoretical objective in neuroscience and medicine is not only to specify what brain areas are recruited during a behavioral task, but also to specify when and in what specific combinations they are activated. By providing detailed information about the relationship between neuronal activity (i.e., post-synaptic dendritic potentials of a considerable number of neurons that are activated in pattern that yield a dipolar field) and the temporal resolution (millisecond by millisecond) of each component information processing operation required for behavioral performance, high-density electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings and averaged EEG (event-related potentials, ERPs) provide a tool in investigations of brain function. EEG/ERP analyses are performed in sensor space with high-density sensor recordings producing more detailed information about changes in brain activity measured across time and sensor space.